


Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

by gladdecease



Category: Mary Poppins (1964)
Genre: 5+1 Things, Author's Favorite, Community: comment_fic, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-03-31
Updated: 2010-03-31
Packaged: 2017-10-14 05:05:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 970
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/145678
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gladdecease/pseuds/gladdecease
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's something to say when you have nothing to say. Or everything.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted [here](http://community.livejournal.com/comment_fic/133293.html?thread=28797101#t28797101) in response to [fae_calumnae](http://fae_calumnae.livejournal.com)'s prompt: Mary Poppins, Bert/Mary, 5 times he told her he loved her, 1 time she said it back.

**i**  
The first time he lays eyes on her, he's just a kid. Starving on the streets, as kids like him are bound to. His job for the day is chimney sweep, working alongside men three feet taller than him without anyone blinking an eye.

It's only a problem when he can't reach the whole way up the chimney to clean out the soot - _then_ somebody gets all up in arms about it.

And _then_ he's out of a job. He hands back his brush and walks off, wondering what jobs can possibly be left today. Probably none.

He sighs. So much for getting food today. He drops to the ground and takes off his hat, setting brim up on the pavement before him. Begging is better than nothing.

"There you are, then," says a very prim and proper voice, as a hand in a satin white glove drops a handful of shillings in his cap. He looks up and loves her immediately. All he can get out is, "God bless, miss."

She smiles kindly at him. "And you, young man."

 **ii**  
He doesn't figure out that she's magic for several more years. He sees her a few times, always in passing - he working one of his odd jobs, she walking by with a few children in tow. He smiles at her, and she at him, and the meetings end at that.

One time, though, he's on a roof, resting between jobs, when he spots an umbrella floating through a strong wind. It occurs to him that it isn't moving like a dropped umbrella tends to, and then he notices the person hanging on to the umbrella.

She seems to notice him too, as she lands down on the very same rooftop he is resting on. She shakes off her umbrella, closes it up, and puts it in her carpetbag. Reaching out, she forces his mouth shut.

"Are you -" he asks.

"I am Mary Poppins," she says, prim as ever. As if he hasn't just seen her fly down from the sky. As if she isn't - she isn't -

"I never explain anything," she adds, "so any questions you may have will prove to be fruitless."

"Of course," he says. "What fun would it be otherwise?"

She smiles. "Now you get it." She walks over to the chimney, looks inside, and climbs on top. "Goodbye, Bert," she says. Jumping slightly, she falls neatly down the chimney.

He hasn't told her his name. She's amazing. "I'll be seeing you, Mary Poppins," he promises.

 **iii**  
"Hello, Bert," she says. He squints up from where he's drawing on the sidewalk, grins when he recognizes the flower on her hat as one he gave her.

"I knew I'd be seeing you again, Mary Poppins," he says. He steps aside, showing off his artwork. "Well? What d'you think?"

She circles the square of chalk slowly, eying the drawing critically. She leans in close, then moves far away, then finally turns to smile at Bert. "I love it," she says.

He brushes a hand against his shirt, feigning a casual reaction. "Aw, it's nothing, really. Just a little picture I drew on the sidewalk."

Mary stares at the drawing for a long minute. "It doesn't have to be," she says. He watches her; she offers her hand. "Do you want to see?"

He takes her hand, and when she says 'jump' he jumps. And then he spends a good amount of time staring. When she has to shut his mouth for him, he grins sheepishly at her, then says, "You are _stupendous_ , Mary Poppins."

She smiles, and says, "I know a better word than that."

 **iv**  
He practices the word quite a lot between one visit and the next, trying to get it right. He looks at newspapers, wondering how it's spelled. If it's written there, in ink, for the whole world to see, or if it's just a word for the two of them.

When he sees Mary again, he says, "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious," and smiles hopefully.

Her returning smile is warm and pleased. "Well done, Bert," she says, and he is satisfied.

 **** **v**  
She introduces him to Uncle Albert, and he spends the whole long day in a good mood, telling terrible jokes at passersby while he roasts chestnuts.

The first ones he sells are to a woman in satin gloves who laughs politely when he tells her about the man with a wooden leg named Smith. She offers a few coins for her chestnuts, and he waves it off. "A man repays his debts," he says.

"Thank you, Bert," she says, accepting her chestnuts. She eats one, then says, "Bert? Could you do me a favor?"

"Anything for you, Mary Poppins," he says. She smiles at him, and tells him about the poor father of the children she's caring for currently. He nods, knowing if she's asked it of him he can do it.

He wonders, sometimes, if people always trust each other this much, or if it's just the two of them. He hopes so.

 **I**  
One of her children looks up at them and asks, "Mary Poppins, do you love Bert?"

Mary looks at him, and Bert pretends to have not heard. It may seem sensible now, but she has looked the same his entire life. Love isn't a word that can be applied here, not really. Though he doesn't know what word _can_ , he's sure Mary would know it.

So it surprises him a little when she says, "Of course I do, Thomas." He looks at her, and she smiles the same as she always has. He wonders if she's been saying 'I love you' in her smile the entire time.

Then satin fingertips are against his chin, and she's shutting his mouth for him, still smiling, and he can't help but laugh.


End file.
